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Tuesday, March 04, 2014

Chavez: the fraud that keeps giving

I am not going to celebrate Chavez first croaking anniversary tomorrow. I genuinely wish he would be alive today and forced to deal with the mess he has left behind, one of the biggest historical frauds that will have been perpetrated once we can dig freely in what happened since 1992, and even before.

Hugo Chavez has been a fraud all through his life. The only mystery is how come so many people fell for so many years under his schemes. There are counted few like yours truly that never ever gave him the benefit of the doubt, though I admit that for a while in 1999, early 2000 I thought he was not as bad as he was, that he was made worse by the manipulations of the two old crones of Miquelena and Rangel. By mid 2000 I was convinced that he was the worst curse ever to hit the country, second only, maybe, to Boves. In a way the two old crones was the only fraud Chavez managed to pull on me.

I am not speaking ill of the dead: I wrote enough ill of him when he was alive that I can demand people not to put that sin on me.

Chavez was a fraud before 1992 because he was a traitorous sworn military officer plotting the demise of democracy. Not of AD or COPEI, the demise of democracy, do not get confused.

Chavez was a fraud in 1992 because he failed miserably in his part of the coup and let the ones who succeeded in their task hang high and dry. He was doubly a fraud with them because he had no qualms in grabbing the limelight even though he was a failure in what was possibly the easiest part of the coup to perform.

He was a fraud between 1992 and 1998 because after espousing an abstention attitude and a nationalist approach he switched like a vulgar opportunist to the leftist look and for running in elections that he won under false pretenses. But that would not be the one time he would run for elections under false pretense.

He was a fraud when he called for a new constitution as the constitutional assembly excluded 40% of the country in its debate. Not that it mattered much because he was a fraud with his own followers since in the end he is pretty much the one that wrote the articles of the constitution he really cared about. And he was the biggest fraud about his own constitution since he started violating it within days of its approbation by grabbing control of the judicial branch.

He was a fraud with his political allies as he disposed of them as needed, bringing back one on occasion, thoroughly humiliated and corrupted. He was a fraud with those who elected him as he ditched them electorally as soon as he could, or ditched them altogether as soon as he could. The court that surrounded him in his last year had very, very little left of the court that brought him to power in 1999, so unforgiving he was in his lifetime to any one to whom he had owed favors.

He was a fraud to the prosperity of the country as he offered one and another model when in fact the only thing he ever did was to remove from his path anyone or anything that could have had the faintest chance to cast a shade on him. He was thus an ideological fraud because the only thing he worried about creating was dog like fealty to his persona, ideological coherence being the least of his concerns.

He was a democratic fraud because his speeches on democracy were of the hollowest kind when in reality he was always trying to create a corporation state where his loyalists would be the only ones with access to riches and power not through creation the new but through destruction of what was in front. Robbery became the name of the game.

All of his promises were a fraud because at the end we had become a more divided society, a more dependent society, a less creative society, a poorer society. And a morally miserable society.

But he reserved his two biggest frauds for last.

One was that for a nationalist he had no qualms in surrendering the orientation of the country to a colonial power that was so much inferior in quality than the colonized victim.

The other was that he run for reelection in 2012 knowing full well that he was going to die within months of the vote. To make sure that yet again an election under false pretenses could be carried out he decided late 2010 to destroy the economic independence of the country, starting with the destruction of parliament.

Today, 364 days after his official death, since the fraud on his real death date has not been perpetrated by him, we are paying the price by having a bankrupt country, torn in an awful fraternal division while drug traffickers and corrupt officers do the impossible to retain the meager protection that power can offer. In a way, even after his death Chavez is still committing fraud against us. He promised us a solid leadership to replace him, a leadership so lousy that it revealed itself before his official death to be morally corrupt, a bunch of constitutional violators and now turned into murderous dictators.

Another one is as to whether Chavez passed the Academia Militar entrance exam. Although unlikely to be able to prove otherwise it would be interesting to know who were his sponsors.

At that time you needed three referees, all military. If an individual lacked personal financial support ANYONE could act as the financial backer as long as three references were available.So who acted as the referees and who acted as the "visible" financial supporter.

OT - JVR ? He without a doubt is, at present, the best weathervane as to the short term future of Venezuela. As you probably know this is the man who sold his vote in the 70s for a couple of million and that in a way deflated democracy for the first time. If his mother was alive she too would have a price on her head.

As far ad know universities in Venezuela...were free before Chavez...another fraud: he made the world to believe he founded free compulsory education and he nationalized the oil industry...this was done well before Chavez...

I still think he was killed by the Castro (it would be unfair to involve all the Cubans in this mess). I have been 100% sure that somehow, the doctors in Cuba by orders of the Castro incubated a deadly disease to Chavez, something that we will never know for sure. I as convinced about this theory as the fact that he died three months before they made his death official. Chavez was eliminated so Maduro, a poppet could take his place so the Castro can finally take over Venezuela. Chavez with his populist blah blah was a threat to the Cuban regime. if Chavez wanted he could have invaded Cuba but it was too late for him to turn his back and walk away from the Castro, he was already brain washed.

one thing for sure is true: HE LEFT A DIVIDED VENEZUELA. 50% with the failed "chavizmo" and 50% totally divided and unable to fight against armed militias.

after Maduro... Venezuela has a long path to recovery. after Maduro? really? I doubt the Castros will let this one go without a fight, the end of maduro means the collapse of Cuba and the fairy tale of the Cuban revolution

.....and the personal bank accounts, dollars of course, held by the Chavista regime and their suckers are increasing day by day in the USA.And the money is at least corrupt, narco related clearly and more than likely invested in terrorism. Problem with fraud is that it takes more than one. And who would have believed the Americans care for Venezuela's leaders ill gotten gains with the full knowledge as to the sources.In times like this you know who your friends are.

Reply to Anonymous 2:13 pm: There is a BIG difference between "Americans" and "American Investment Bankers". You seem to be conflating the two. Most thinking Americans are strongly with the opposition in Venezuela and want to see a return of democracy, peace and the rule of law in Venezuela. American investment bankers are as deeply despised here in the USA as they rightly are in Latin America.

Just when you think the clowns in charge couldn't make it easier on themselves, they decide to go after Panama. Panama, come on clowns you have got to be kidding me right? Ok, I understand that the clowns running the country don't have brains. However, why in God's name would you go after a country that you already owe a lot of money to? Oh, and why in hell would you go after the country that controls the main shipping canal in the world. I would love for Panama to ban any oil from Venezuela to enter or pass through the canal and what a show the clowns will give us.....

Sounds like paranoia and all part of the blame game. But did they think of this themselves or did Uncle Raoul give them the idea? This time the BBC has deigned to give this full coverage.http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26461530

Chavez had perfect timing and remarkable good fortune. Elected at 9 dollars a barrel, oil shot up to 100+ a barrel in 2002-2003 (just when he was at his most unpopular) and stayed there on average until his death. He also died after managing to break the bank trying to win the 2012 election (government spending went up 98% the year before the election, much of it borrowed on credit of future oil production...today, China gets close to 20% of oil produced in Venezuela as payment on past loans), and just as the inevitable tab of his policies and recklessness came due.

If he only lived one more year to deal with mess...

The best example of his good fortune, besides good timing, is the utter bungling of the 2002 coup as it was hijacked by Carmona and others, which made the military switch sides and allowed Chavez to come back.

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